Skip to main content

What is Food?

What is Food?

Define Food?

Food makes your body work, grow and repair itself. The kind of food you eat can affect the efficiency of these processes. Body function and the food that sustains it is infinitely complex. Food is in fact one of the most complicated sets of chemicals imaginable.

Getting to know which nutrients are in which foods can help you to understand something of this complex relationship between your food and your body.

Chemicals in food

Food is composed of many different chemical substances - 'macronutrients' (major nutritional components that are present in relatively large amounts, such as protein), 'micronutrients' (major nutritional components that are present in relatively small amounts, such as vitamins), water, and roughage (dietary fibre).

Food may contain colours (natural and synthetic), flavours, pharmacologically active substances (such as caffeine, steroids, and salicylates, which chemically affect the body), natural toxicants (naturally occurring poisons, such as cyanide), additives, and various contaminants (substances resulting from a contaminated environment, such as pesticides). Even characteristic flavours such as those of oranges and passionfruit can depend on the presence of a dozen or more chemicals.

The chemical nature of food is changed by storage, preservation and, especially, by cooking. Food chemicals can also interact amongst themselves within the body. For example, the availability to the body of iron from plant sources depends on the amount of vitamin C present in the food eaten. The way in which carbohydrate is absorbed from the bowel depends to some extent on the presence of dietary fibre, even though the fibre itself is not absorbed.

Physical form of food

Food is also more than just the chemicals it contains. Its physical characteristics are important. The size of food particles can affect the extent to which nutrients are digested and made ready for absorption by the body. For example, eating an intact apple has nutritional value different from drinking all the same chemicals in an apple purée. Ground rice is more rapidly digested than unground rice. Nutrients can be more easily absorbed from peanut butter (paste) than from peanuts eaten whole.

Acid or alkaline

The acidity and alkalinity of food are physical properties often thought to be important. In fact, they are only important insofar as they might alter the rate of emptying of the stomach, digestion in the small bowel and the acidity or alkalinity of the urine. Our bodies can cope with a wide range in food acidity and alkalinity without much problem. Acid foods are generally sour while alkaline foods often have a slightly soapy taste. The use of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) can make foods alkaline. It can also cause loss of vitamin C and contribute to our intake of sodium.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Milk Production in Pakistan

MILK PRODUCTION IN PAKISTAN Milk production and processing is the most important component in livestock sector in Pakistan. The value of milk alone exceeds the combined value of wheat, rice, maize and sugarcane. The milk in Pakistan is predominantly produced under four different production system namely Rural Subsistence Smallholdings, Rural Market Oriented Small–holdings, Rural Commercial Farms and Peri urban/ Urban Dairying. The overall animal herd is thinly spread across thousand of square kilometers with and average of 3-5 animal per house hold and more than 40 million people in the rural area are engaged in livestock raising. Out of total milk produced, 97 % is marketed in informal sector (loose milk consumed in the villages and/or sold in the cities through”Gawallaws” is unhygienic conditions and without any quality standards). Since more than 90% of milk is produced by small holders, its collection and processing faces a major challenge. The dairy sector operates mostly in the
Post a Comment
Read more

Disadvantages of Drinking cold water

Here few reasons discussed to explain that why you should make a switch from chilled water to normal room temperature water Restricts Digestion Experts claim that chilled water and even cold beverages contract your blood vessels, thereby restricting digestion. It also hinders the natural process of absorbing nutrients during digestion. The body’s focus is diverted from digestion because it tries to manage your blood heat which of the water, which may actually cause water loss and cause you to feel dehydrated. The normal temperature of the body is 37 degree C, and once you consume something of a really coldness , your body compensates by spending energy to manage this temperature. This extra energy that is now used to regulate the temperature would have been originally used in the process of digestion and absorbing nutrients. This is why it is always advisable to have water at room temperature. Sore Throat Another very obvious reason, that even your elders are preventing you from gulpin
Post a Comment
Read more